“For me, the horror genre took me over at a young age,” Hammett told Boston Magazine. “I was five years old when I saw my first horror movie, and from the onset it was like discovering an entirely different world out there that I never knew existed.”

“It was just something that made me feel incredibly safe, comfortable, inspired,” he continued. “Over the course of time, as a child, I got more into reading books on horror, monster magazines, horror comic books—that was during the ’60s horror toy craze. I was a sponge and soaked it all up.”